I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve read a ton of stories and opinions related to the Penn State cover-up that the Freeh Report showed. After a while some blurred with others. Tabs closed. Maybe even some stories missed.

Three pieces stand out for various reasons, so I’m going to explain, link and excerpt a bit of them here. If you have your own favorite put it in the comments so we can take a look.

First up is Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins. Ms. Jenkins was one of the last people to interview Joe Paterno before his death. That piece was not exactly hard-hitting. But then how hard do you go after a dying man getting cancer treatments? She basically let him make his claims of not knowing anything. Now? She feels a bit used and pissed.

Joe Paterno was a liar, there’s no doubt about that now. He was also a cover-up artist. If the Freeh Report is correct in its summary of the Penn State child molestation scandal, the public Paterno of the last few years was a work of fiction. In his place is a hubristic, indictable hypocrite.

And that’s just the opening graph.

There’s nothing like feeling like you have been used to get the anger really flowing.

If Paterno knew about ’98, then he wasn’t some aging granddad who was deceived, but a canny and unfeeling power broker who put protecting his reputation ahead of protecting children.

If he knew about ’98, then he understood the import of graduate assistant Mike McQueary’s distraught account in 2001 that he witnessed Sandusky assaulting a boy in the Penn State showers.

If he knew about ’98, then he also perjured himself before a grand jury.

Guilty.

Paterno didn’t always give lucid answers in his final interview conducted with the Washington Post three days before his death, but on this point he was categorical and clear as a bell. He pled total, lying ignorance of the ’98 investigation into a local mother’s claim Sandusky had groped her son in the shower at the football building.

The knowledge of the 1998 incident. The way he was involved in the non-actions of the 2001 events.

I think back to the night Paterno was fired. Not the rioting in Penn State. But the quick little statement in front of his house where he ended with telling the sycophants to say a prayer for the victims of Sandusky. Did he ever say a prayer for them? Did he even feel anything when he would be at Lasch and see Sandusky there — perhaps with another boy in tow? Did he think about how he was letting it happen?

I doubt it. Like any coach, he probably compartmentalized it. Shoved it into some corner in his mind and didn’t think about it. How else do you deal with it? With seeing a monster like Sandusky every day and not doing anything?

Mike DeCourcy is one of the best national college basketball reporter/columnist out there. I don’t agree with all of his stances (esp. w. regards to kids being able to go from high school to the NBA), but he is always willing to engage and discuss. He was also a Pittsburgh newspaper guy who covered Penn State.

As appalling as their decisions appear to reasonable people, transparency was antithetical to Penn State’s approach over Paterno’s final decades. Secrecy was almost a sacrament.

With the proper credentials, a visitor at least can walk through Buckingham Palace. Paterno’s program kept the doors sealed shut.

I spent nine seasons covering Joe Paterno’s Penn State football program for The Pittsburgh Press, from 1984 through 1992. The Nittany Lions played twice for the national championship in that period and won the second time. During my first several seasons on the beat, I met some of the finest young men I can imagine. During my later years, I got to know none of the players as Paterno gradually turned what had been a guarded program entirely inward.

Paterno wanted complete control over the messages emanating from his program and went well out of his way to deflect any outside scrutiny of how it operated, whether from the media covering the Nittany Lions or from elsewhere on campus, as detailed in leaked emails written by Vicky Triponey, then PSU vice president of student affairs.

This was my fundamental mistake. This was our mistake, as a community. The Grand Experiment began as a sales pitch, as a way for Paterno to elevate the standards of the university he loved by using football as the lure. And then at some point, the lure outweighed the catch, and the sales pitch drove motivations, and we were too myopic to see it. At some point, the little white lies that Paterno hid behind — that he would retire after five more years, that Bowling Green was, in fact, a formidable opponent, that the culture of football was in no way segregated from the culture of the university at large — ballooned into this, into a lie so unthinkable that it takes your breath away.

So much PSU arrogance has stemmed from their faith in the Grand Experiment — at least when it was convenient. That PSU was special, and they believed in doing it the right way. And when something like the 2007 incident where a horde of their football players went attacking people at an apartment party, well, that was the sort of thing that happened everywhere so stop making it such a big deal. They would repeat to anyone their mantra of “success with honor.” Over the last 14 years they have had some moments of success, but honor is something they cannot claim.

I shared this with Chas on Twitter, but apparently not only could the NCAA kill the football team; but the DoE could kill the university as a whole.

“While many are waiting for the NCAA to step in and issue some sort of death penalty against Penn State for its lack of institutional control following the release of the Freeh report, which detailed a university-wide cover-up of sexual abuse by former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, the harshest penalties could be coming from the Department of Education (DOE).”

and

“The issue at hand is Penn State’s compliance (or lack thereof) with the Clery Act. The Clery Act requires that any public or private university that receives federal financial aid publicly report any crime on or near campus. […] . But if the DOE were to come down on Penn State, it could remove the university’s accreditation and prohibit students from obtaining Pell Grants and federal student loans. In essence, it would cripple Penn State’s ability to be a viable institution.”

The interesting thing to note about the Clery Act and PSU is that “The federal government enacted the Clery Act in 1990 and Penn State adopted it in 1991 by designating a member of the university police to be the act’s coordinator. However, according to the Freeh report, an independent investigation of the Penn State scandal by former FBI investigator Louis Freeh, Penn State did not train the officer to enforce the act until 2007″

The fact that it took PSU a year to adopt the law isn’t the questionable part. Many organizations take time to read the law, talk to lawyers, find out what exactly they have to do and stuff like that. But the fact that it took them SEVENTEEN years to train the person in charge is troublesome.

Also from the article “As of November 2011 — 21 years after being signed into law — Penn State’s Clery Act policy was still in draft form and had not been implemented.”

TWENTY-ONE years later..and the policy was STILL in draft form…

Pedo State deserves EVERYTHING it can get. Joe Paterno, in my eyes, is as guilty as Jerry Sandusky.

Frankcan I afraid I agree with you. When SMU was given the death penalty ESPN and the connected money interests (the 1% of the country) did not have a strangle hold on our government.
It is not Wall Street that runs the this country it is the politicans writing or eliminating statutes enacted to protect ourselves from ourselves.
Call it Wall Street, multi-national corporations or the top 1%, but it is not democracy it is an an oligargy and the fatted cow will not kill won of it’s calves.
They played by the rules they play by and this sorted affair will be forgotten by kickoff in September.

Frankly, if I may, I would like to THANK WHOMEVER for the decision to reduce the number of comments about that “institution of highrt learning in central Pa.” Now I can read the Pittsburgh Post Gazette without becoming ill. If I really wanted journalistic filth I would choose to look elsewhere. May I suggest we get on with the sports programs of other schools. The “Clean” ones if we can find any. Rev. George in Columbus

It’s a long report, it seems so meticulous, thorough and without bias, and yet there seems to be something missing.

A hero. How can there be an epic story without a hero, without at least one good guy? In the cast of hundreds in Louis Freeh’s report on the child-sex-abuse scandal at Penn State, how is it possible that everyone is a villain?

Penn State could still be a hero. Shut down the program for several years. De-emphasize football. Tear down that statue of JoePa. Completely clean house in the athletic ranks and BOT. If you had any contact with those 4 evil men, attended any Penn State football games or gave money to the program, you need not apply. Finally, change the uniform color and go back to pink and black. You can’t wear white until its been proven without doubt that the penance has been paid and the cult has learned its lesson.

Please don’t say PSU is too big to be sanctioned. Please. The NCAA has never ever seen anything like this. Neither has the Feds. This is uncharted waters. No one thought the above would fail. But the above are no longer with us. I think the University will survive. But the football program is going to take some hits. There is too much pressure not to. And with the constant cadence of impending civil suits, there will be enough constant media scrutiny that the NCAA can’t just run away and hide and hope people forget like they have with Miami and Ohio State.

One of those 3 will sing at the right time. Timing is everything and I expect Curly to be the one. He was truly subordinate to the other 3 and while his conduct was also despicable, he still has a life in front of him. Spanier & Schulz are done!

@ BATR again. Just read that article that you linked above. And I thought that I couldn’t feel any more ill than I did after all the stuff coming out about the cover up in Creepy Valley. Then I have to go and consume gobs more of Fraud Graham’s BS that he is currently feeding to the Sun Devil faithful. OOOOH where are my antacids?

“Both Norvell and Randolph coached under Graham at Tulsa and Pitt.
Norvell offered some insight as to what to expect from the Sun Devil offense.
“We’re going to be a downhill, hit-them-in-the-mouth kind of team,” Norvell said. “Our offensive linemen are going to be in three-point stances.”

I read the story abought TG but some thing doesent jive he must be talking abought last years recruiting class.
rival only has TG with 5 recruits so far this year not the 22 this man talks abought dick rod has 22 this year not TG.

unlee rival is wrong but rival has pitt with 13 so rival seams on top of things.

I don’t see how the NCAA can ignore this without losing all credibility and the so called moral high ground. A head coach orchestrates the cover-up of heinous criminal behavior to protect the brand name and millions of $ that go with it.

Don’t think for a minute that he didn’t consider what this would do to his sainthood like stature.

I always believed that he put himself above his players (no names on the unis),the University (you can’t fire me, I’ll police the football team), the competition (the 2 for 1 deal)and helpless little children.

The “Penn State Way” the Hubris, what a joke.

What is the appropriate punishment for the University? Don’t tell me Ron Cook that the bad PR is enough. If it is true that Spanier did not tell his boss, the Chairman of the Board about the dilemna, then JoePA was in fact his defacto boss. The lawyers and PR firms are getting rich.

i have to disagree with all posters who want to cancel the upcoming, two game, series with psu. this series should never have been broken. many want to blame joepa for its end. some bloggers
here would like to keep it from resuming. maybe this is a time to express empathy and feel holier than thou for a few years.
i want the series to resume.
htp

Where I see the NCAA coming into play is that they will have to set a precedent where an iconic coach cannot have complete control over a university. Think if Dean Smith acted in the same way? I cannot presume that PSU will get the death penalty but I can see where the NCAA will establish a set of governance rules that all universities must abide by. There will be penalties for PSU but I can’t see a death penalty. Only time will tell.

The NCAA website clearly states, “Integrity. Fair Play. Accountability”. I emailed them and let it be known that if they hold this as true, then they must give Pedo State the death penalty. Otherwise they are no different than Graham, Spanier, Curley, or JoePa.

The cult must go into detox. That would be the death penalty. Then, they will realize just how unhealthy it is to hero worship a coach and have your life be defined by college football. I know it will be economically devastating and I know it will hurt the non revenue programs at the school but I truly believe this is the only way to flush the toxins completely out of the zombie brain. They will be a better fan base and school as a result. Until then, I think Pitt has no business associating with a cult addicted to football and without a moral compass. And to think this could happen at other big time programs is bullshit. No coach out there accumulated the power that JoePa did over 40 years. Few schools are as isolated as Creepy Valley. Few communities are entirely dependent on football season. The football addiction and brainwashing was systematic throughout all levels of the school. This took years to take root and it cannot be easily exterminated. The death penalty is the only solution. Penn State should not be defined by one man or one sport. It is better than that. Until then, ‘we are’ rings hollow.

PSU clearly violated NCAA Constitution Article 6 (institutional control), particularly Section 4.2 (relating to responsibility for representatives of the organization of which Sandusky would qualify in his post-retirement emeritus role with PSU) as well as by-laws 10.1 (relating to ethical obligations) and 11.1 (relating to conduct of athletic personnel). If the NCAA wants to nail them, which they will have no choice but to do, then they will nail them- and the sky is the limit.

The NCAA can’t sit back and rely on the Freeh Report because the scope of the investigation was limited.

Freeh didn’t connect all the dots because he concentrated solely on two issues presented by the penn state task force which kept the scope away from football. The NCAA will be forced to look closer at the operations and organization. The NCAA surely must understand this. Shouldn’t they?

I would tap the brakes on condemning PSU for weakly following the Clery act. I was at Pitt 2006-10, lived in 4 different residence halls and worked closely with ResLife personnel through my organization; I don’t recall hearing anything about the Clery Act or mandatory reporters at least by that name. Before anyone goes correcting me, sure it’s tucked away in here (link to safety.pitt.edu) and sure, urban campuses are always more vigilant than rural/suburban types, but I think awareness and compliance are general problems for the Department of Education, not PSU-specific.

Will they use the scrutiny/publicity make an example out of PSU? Perhaps, but I suspect the board of trustees will adopt most of the Freeh report’s recommendations before the DoE gets their ducks in a row for that.

As I thought would happen, Penn State administrator’s have plans to tear apart the shower facilities at the Lasch sports complex where Jerry committed his crimes. Now, the JoPA statue must come down and a self-imposed death penalty for football should be announced. That’s the only way Penn State will ever get beyond this tragedy in this millennium.

Pitt / Penn State football games have always been important games for both schools. However, unless Penn State administrator’s show some contrition, the rivalry is over as far as I’m concerned.

while this incident will has tarnished JoePa and PSU’s pristine reputation, without any sanctions, the school has actually benefitted. Recruiting hasn’t suffered and its donations have actually increased …. and life will go in Happy Valley on autumn Saturdays untarnised with the 100,000+ carrying on like nothing ever happened.

To quote Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco) … “there must be consequences”

If nothing else … the NCAA can at least ban “We are …” and “Penn State Proud”

Why does Jay Paterno never refer to his father as Dad? It’s always Joe. Well, I’m ready to move onto Pitt stuff until Nitter Nation gets some penalty from the NCAA. Is that running back Green visiting this weekend? I hear that the Aggies have new old school uniforms to kickoff their first year in the SEC. The colors stay the same but their helmet is different. How about Pitt keeping the colors since it would be expensive to go back to the old mustard and blue but go with Pitt script on the helmets for the ACC. Any takers out there?

TX, I’ll bite. How about this uni change: Go back to the Marino era blue (royal blue, I think) and gold (more like the yellow of the seats in our stadium), but keep the block PITT on the helmet. A blue helmet with the gold block PITT would be sharp and show up well on TV. However, anything would be an improvement over the ND retread uni we currently have.

The NCAA could only do one thing….punish the football program. Penn State football pays for all the athletics up in “happy valley”. If they want to send a message, put the ban on them. Kill the cult for a while, and hurt the insitution. My sister went to PSU (shes a Pitt fan and attends there now) but they made it seem like the University was like one big family. If something bad happens to one person in a family, everyone is affected. Death penalty will certainly drive the point into everyone that was responsable for this disgusting acts of denial, cover up, lies, and unlawful actions. To think people that looked at Joepa as a role model for years and they still feel he didnt do that wrong thing and will stick by him. Everyone drank the juice up there. anything that program ever taught about moral decisions and success with honor is a completely destroyed and will take years to restablish. People never think about what PSU football was to the university, it wasnt just football, it wasnt just Joepa, it was the largest check they could recieve in 4 months. NCAA always handles the money issues right? Well PSU football isnt just a honor scandal, its also a money issue.

p.s. Taking my and other fans love of the Pitt script or the old colors totally out of the equation.

You would have to be a real bonehead, to not do something for entering into the new conference. (unless you have a uniform that you’ve had for 30 or 40 years and is the standard, which got ruined about 15 years ago).

Anyhow, common sense and the early money says, that we will most likely do something.

I am excited, should others get excited?????

NO!!!

If they do something, you can almost guarantee, something about it will not be right, it will be “off” somehow.

The blue will be darker, or the gold “goldier”. They’ll have a picture of the cathedral on the helmet, or a picture of the dirty o on the helmet.

The stripes will be diagonal or go sideways around the calves.

It’s so simple. Go back to the Pitt script and royal blue and mustard.

You don’t need to pay a marketing firm 200k to figure this out.

Maybe steve will go to maroon, so we can look just like BC and FSU???

If they would do a change, and get it right, I will donate $1000.00 to a Pitt Blather tailgate, at a game we all agree on.

I’m gonna go ahead and go get the new washer and dryer set next week anyhow!!!

Current colors with script easy and will bring in millions. The year they did throw backs for ysu at seasons end someone-palko I believed had the script sticker on Vegas gold helmet for a senior all star game, looked like a marketing winner

the ncaa is constantly making and changing their rules so it doesnt matter what was said by that espn attorney. if the ncaa does nothing they will, deservedly, get a monumental amount of shit. this wasnt just “lack of institutional control”, this was “active concealment”. i feel more confident now than ever that psu will get major sanctions of not the death peanalty. espn had a pool and 70% of voters said the death penalty should be used. this is the biggest scan dal in all of sports history and it happened under the supervision and control of the footb all coach and athletic director. 2 year death penalty and keep them on probation following

The penn state faithful are so blind in their devotion and live in such a perpetual state of denial I have no reason to believe that anything will happen to the FB program, from either the NCAA or an outraged alumni population. From the alumni I work and speak with they are convinced that Joe is a victim, no one knew, Jerry was rogue pedophile that fooled everyone. This is exactly the kind of blind devotion and arrogance that let these chain of events happen in the first place. This disconnect, continued support of the FB program and claims that any sanctions would hurt the innocence kids and the university is the precise reason why it deserves the death penalty. This type of fanaticism is the mind set that put the program and the dollars it generated ahead of principles, morals and the victims. So be prepared for the statue to stay up, the stadium to be named in his honor and bunch of other crap to stay the way is it always has in happy valley. Just watch the spin as time goes by, in 3-5 years you only hear about all the good that Paterno’s FB brought to all those who benefited. Makes me sick. I think the fans with this mind set are just as guilty as the administrators.

Maybe someone at the Pitt News can start clamoring for the change upon entry to the ACC? I think if thousands of students start advocating a change, that Steve P might listen.

And as mentioned, a change of colors would be a marketing bonanza! There are many older yinzers (myself included) that saw TD and Marino play who would buy merchandise with the new colors. Yes, you can buy a retro jersey now, but it would be different since it would connect someone to the current team, not one from a couple of decades ago.

What I’m wondering is what leads or innuendoes the Freeh committee found but could not prove. You gotta believe the 4 scoundrels did everything they could to keep any and all email and other written records clean thru the 14 years, and that Freeh got lucky because Curley screwed up and missed ONE email. Will we ever know how BAD this really was?